Chinese Visitors, English Libraries: The Role of Native Chinese Visitors for the Understanding of Collections of Chinese Books and Manuscripts in England, 1687–1775

This paper is a chapter of my PhD dissertation, which I am writing at the University of Hong Kong. The paper in question focuses on the impact that three native Chinese visitors had on collections of Chinese books and manuscripts, that were held by different libraries in England during the 17th and 18th centuries. Due to lack of knowledge of the Chinese language, the collectors and librarians were during this time unable to decipher the works, and thus to organise and catalogue them properly, let alone read them. When, therefore, news came of a Chinese visitor to the country, they often took the opportunity of employing this individual to assist them in examining, ordering, and cataloguing the works.

During the period under review, this happened on three different occasions. The first time was in 1687, when a Christian convert by the name of Michael Shen Fu-tsung assisted the orientalist Thomas Hyde in ordering the books of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The second time was between December 1770 and January 1771, when a Canton sculptor, who went by the name of Chitqua, examined the Chinese (and Japanese!) book collection of the British Museum. Only two years later, in November 1773, a young man whom the English called Whang Atong was called to the British Museum to perform a similar task. Atong was again employed in June 1775, when he helped to order the Chinese books of the library of St. John’s College at Oxford.

The chapter compares the activities of these three individuals and reaches the conclusion that they were instrumental in the first attempts at cataloguing and ordering the Chinese books and manuscripts in these libraries. The research is based on source material, some of which has never been used in an academic publication.